Invitation to atheists, agnostics, exvangelicals, nones and dones to make the world better
We need to collaborate to make it happen.
Greetings Neighbors:
Each of us has a unique story about why we are not religious. How we got here is not as important as the fact that we do not practice religion. You don’t need me to tell you that we are reviled by most of the world for our lack of religion. But I can tell you with full confidence that God shares our attitudes about religion. In fact, I can tell you that God has even stronger negative attitudes about religion than we do. Here are several links that report God’s attitudes:
If you want to learn more about God’s attitudes about religion, you would do well to visit Religion Detox Network which I created to help people escape from religion and detoxify themselves from it. But that is not my main reason for sending this post to you. My purpose is to invite you as non-religious people to collaborate with me to make the world better.
Many people -- religious and nonreligious -- have a sentimental notion that love is the key to making the world better. Others who are more pragmatic believe that political activism, government, religious evangelism and money are the keys to universal peace, security and well-being. The apparent logic of these beliefs is discredited by historical facts that prove that these strategies do not produce lasting results. Activism may yield a few short-term results —both good and bad — but they do not change hearts that will yield sustainable change that makes the world better for everyone.
Some religious people hope that prayer, fasting, spiritual warfare, and physical violence — when necessary — will somehow move God to spiritually energize their activism. They would never admit it, but history shows that religious activism also lacks the power to make the world better. If we see history clearly, we would see that religious activism has always made the world worse — not better.
While you do not participate in religious activism, there is a good chance that many of you are involved in political activism. No doubt you and your religiously active neighbors are sincere in your beliefs and do you best to effect positive change. But, I need to tell you that, despite your good intentions, your efforts have not made the world better. It’s still a mess.
I agree with those who contemplate the miserable state of the world and say that love is the answer to all of its problems. Before you dismiss me as an Age of Aquarius throwback, however, I must explain that my concept of love is not sentimental, kumbaya, human love. Human love does not have the power to change hearts and minds. Godly love, however, does have that kind of power. Anyone who doubts this statement, should imagine what the world would be like if everyone lived by the principles found in Practical, Doable Ways to Love Your Neighbor which represents a small sample of the nature of Godly love.
Obviously, Christians and Jews do not know the difference between Godly love and human love. If they did know, the world would not be in the mess it is in. Just as obviously, we cannot depend on Jews or Christians to teach anyone — including themselves — how to practice Godly love. That leaves a big gap for an army of practitioners and advocates of Godly love who know the difference and are willing to teach the world about it.
I am on a mission to teach the world about the difference between human love and Godly love. It is an audacious undertaking for which I am ill equipped but compelled by global suffering and injustice to do whatever I can do to make the world a better place.
With this email I am inviting religious outcasts such as you to consider making this your mission also. I am beginning my search for collaborators by inviting religious outcasts because I believe that the hero of the Good Samaritan story describes religious outcasts like us. As a religious outcast, the good Samaritan did not have religious credentials but his attitude about how to love his neighbor compelled him to care for others and qualified him as a righteous hero in God’s eyes. This leads me to believe that not being religious is the primary qualification for teaching others about Godly love. See Religion and Belief in God Are Not Prerequisites for Loving Your Neighbor for more about this belief.
The main resources for my mission are two websites: Confronting Christian Nationalism and Make the World Better: Love Your Neighbor. Religion Detox Network is another website I refer to often. I strongly recommend them to you and I challenge you to consider how you can share the principles found there with people you know personally or through internet communities.
In addition to social outcasts, I will also invite religious journalists, scholars and organizations to communicate the principles of Godly love to their readers. I will also invite secular media that willingly reports on religious events and trends but carefully avoids commentary on religious beliefs. Reporting biblical doctrines about Godly love is foreign to secular media but, if they want to make the world better, they will proactively share the truth about Godly love with their followers. Perhaps they will be willing to get out of their comfort zones when they understand that they can share biblical truth without being religious and without showing preferences for one religion over another.
I will share Make the World a Better Place content with all collaborators through Substack posts. The first post titled Do Not Seek Revenge and Retribution will be published soon. If you subscribe to Make the World a Better Place, you will receive all future Substack posts. What you do with those posts is up to you, but my hope is that you will share the principles found in them broadly with your social media friends and followers.
Choosing to subscribe does not automatically make you a collaborator. I see collaborators as totally independent agents who publish what they want, when they want. Collaborators can share posts from Make the World a Better Place and content from my websites or they can plagiarize as much as they want when creating their own content. Because all my work is open source, it may be used and edited freely at will without prior approvals or author credits. There is no membership, no dues, no logo, no newsletter or secret handshake. We are bound together only by our common interest to make the world better.
You can learn more about Make the World a Better Place by reading the About Make the World Better link.
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Paul Borene